Search This Blog

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

CSM LESLIE E. BRADLEY, #11109 4TH (CENTRAL ONTARIO) BATTALION

Those of us that worship at St. Stephens Anglican
Church, Hornby, ON blindly find our pew seats and dispurse at the end of
service through the main aisle, without giving much else a thought. However on
the rear wall in the corner are two war memorial lists from the First and
Second World Wars. The World War One Memorial holds the names of thirteen men
that presumably served in the Great War. My intention was to write short
profiles on some of the men if I could positively identify them. They seem to
be local born folks, residents or employees from the area. I have been able
to positively identify all but two. However
the first man listed has actually proved the most interesting so far.

CSM Leslie Bradley, 4th Battalion

St. Stephen's Anglican Church, Hornby est. 1836

This man is described in his Military Medal citation as “courageous and
brave”. He was also awarded a Belgian Croix de Guerre for valour on the
battlefield. He served continously from August 1914 to March 1919, fighting in
some of the fiercest battles of the war like Ypres, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele,
Amiens and Cambrai. In the process he received gunshot wounds 3 times, lost a
thumb and was awarded both the Military Medal and aforementioned Croix de
Guerre. More importantly he is buried within our beautiful St. Stephens Cemetery
(with his wife Jean) without any notification or any sign of his heroics or contributions to
the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Leslie
Bradley was born March 15, 1889 in the small hamlet of Linton, King
Township (between Schomberg and Nobleton, Hwy. 27) as the 4th child of farmer
John Bradley and Elizabeth Bryan’s ten children. Sometime between the 1891 and
1901 Canadian Censuses, the family moved to a farm in Trafalgar, Lot 12,
Concession 7. In the 1911 Census Leslie
is shown as a 22 year-old farm labourer still on his father’s farm and one of 8
children at home. There is no sign of the impending heroics or leadership
skills to come in a few years. Leslie belonged
to not only the St. Stephen’s congregation but also the No. 165 Hornby Orange
Lodge and the 20th Halton Battalion Lorne Rifles militia regiment
(“H “ Coy. Hornby). The 36th Peel Battalion and the 20th
Halton Rifles provided 16 officers and 404 other ranks to the 4th Battalion of
the 1st Canadian Division, CEF. 4th (Central Ontario)
Battalion, CEFwas organized atValcartierunder Camp Order 241 of 2
September 1914 and was composed of recruits from Military District 2 The battalion was commanded by
Lieutenant-Colonel W.S. Buell who was replaced within days by
Lieutenant-Colonel R.H. Labatt. Leslie
Bradley was one of the 404 men to travel to Valcartier attesting to the 4th
Battalion on September 22, 1914 giving his occupation as a carpenter, address
as R.R. 3, Georgetown and shaving a year off his age.

·Returned to Canada, S.S. Empress of Britain, Liverpool to
Halifax, February 17, 1919

·Discharged Toronto as “Medically Unfit” March 28, 1919

From the Milton Champion January 1916

A letter was received and printed
from Sgt. Leslie Bradley who
complained that the regimental goat nearly got his package from home: from
Gunner Emory Bradley, at the Grange Hospital, Kent who reported that his foot
was healing.

Leslie Bradley's gravestone in St.Stephen's Ceme

On return to civilian life, it appears that Leslie returned to farming. He is shown as the sole occupant of a
farm on R.R.#3 Georgetown, Township of Esquesing in the 1921 Canada Census. On
April 16, 1924, 35 year old Leslie
Bradley married a 20 year-old clerk from Hagersville, Jean Elizabeth
Wilson, in Hamilton. His brother Emery was his witness. Leslie
Bradley took over the general store in Postville, Township of
Trafalgar, in 1925. He also took over as postmaster. The Trafalgar Post office
was at the rear of the store. Irene Saunders tells us in the 2011 Summer
Newsletter of the Trafalgar Township Historical Society, that her Uncle Leslie's pay was not as much as the
former postmaster because he lacked experience. The store was the second house
west of Trafalgar Road on Dundas Road, then known as the 7th Line. In the late
1940's, the highway department insisted the store sign was too big so it had to
be replaced. Some other information from the Bradley family: The previous owner's name was Carpenter. Leslie Bradley almost lost the store in
the depression and the Carpenters tried to get it back, but he was able to
borrow money from the McClary sisters to pay the mortgage and keep the store. The
building on the left was not separate from the store. There was a veranda on
the front of the house with a lattice for privacy. You may also note the
trellis for Mr. Bradley's climbing
roses.The left store window was
on the hardware side; probably cans of paint. The right side was for groceries;
the picture shows the ends of the shelving of canned goods.You may also note the post on the
right store front is out of line, not straight up and down like the other ones.
The story goes that in earlier times farmers would tie their horse to that post
- and it was the horses that pulled it out of line.Leslie
and Jean went on to have children Lorne, Donald, Laura and Edgar.

Belgium Croix de Guerre

Postville/ Post's Corners- Located at Trafalgar and
Dundas, it was a Hamlet called Post's Corners from at least 1815 - 1851 and
called Postville by 1857. It was the location of the local store, school, Steam
saw Mill, Inn, Drill shed for the local militia and Post Office. It was also a
stage stop between York and Dundas. It was called Post's Corners because
Ephraim Post owned the sw corner and the north-east corner. It is not clear
when they first owned this land but sometime between 1807 and 1816.The Inn was on the s.w. corner and the store and post office a bit farther west
on the n.w. corner. The store was owned by Squire James Appelbe and around 1840
the post office was also moved into the store. (Having previously being located
east of Post's Corners and Alexander Proudfoot being the postmaster.) Just
below the south east corner there was a steam saw mill. In the late 1960's the
Inn was torn down and the general store taken down to make way for a service
station. The Post's home on the north-east corner of Dundas & Trafalgar was
torn down in 1965.

Leslie Bradley's store near Trafalgar Road

So apparently, from the time the Bradley’s settled in Trafalgar about the turn of the 19th
Century until Leslie’s death on July
2, 1979 (and perhaps longer) the family were regular constituents of our St.
Stephens Anglican Church in Hornby. We should note at this point that Leslie’s younger brother, Emery, is
also mentioned on the St. Stephens WWI Memorial Roll as well. Emery, born in
1895, tried to enlist in the 20th Battalion November 1914 but was
refused as under aged. However he did enlist 1915 in Toronto’s 9th
Battery, # 83222 Canadian Field Artillery and served in England and France
through the war. After crushing his ankle under a horse in November 1916 in
Belgium, it appears he served the remaining of the war as an artillery
instructor in both England and France, being discharged 1919 in Toronto. He
died March 12, 1981 in London, ON.

About Me

Studied Military History, Environmental Science and Business at Wilfrid Laurier University. Military enthusiast and collector. Retired business owner. Married with family members in Alberta and England. Toured extensively all the European battlefields.